Transgender rapist Isla Bryson sentenced to eight years in prison at the High Court in Edinburgh

A transgender rapist who raped two women while still a man has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Isla Bryson, 31, from Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, was convicted last month of raping two women while still a man known as Adam Graham.

Bryson, who will now be placed on the sex register indefinitely, was handed an 11-year sentence, with eight years to be carried out in jail and a further three under supervision, at the High Court in Edinburgh on Tuesday.

A six-day trial at the High Court in Glasgow heard Bryson raped two women: one in Clydebank in 2016 and one in Drumchapel, Glasgow, in 2019.

Bryson met both the victims online, with prosecutors saying the 31-year-old “preyed” on vulnerable women.

After the jury at the High Court in Glasgow delivered its guilty verdict, judge Lord Scott told Bryson the crimes were “considerable” and said that “a significant sentence is inevitable”.

During the trial, the High Court in Glasgow heard Bryson was going through the breakdown of a brief, unhappy marriage and went to stay with the first victim at her mother’s house in Clydebank in 2016.

Giving evidence on pre-recorded video, the victim, 30, said she was raped for half-an-hour.

“All I said was ‘no’ over and over and over again,” she said.

“At the time I was so scared. Sick to the stomach. I just didn’t know what was going on.”

The second victim, who gave evidence via live video-link, told the court Bryson continued to have sex with her after she said stop.

The court heard Bryson entered the victim with “her penis”, and was told to stop because Bryson was “crushing” the victim.

The victim’s police statement said Bryson instead told her to “stay there” because “he (Bryson) wasn’t finished”.

The victim told the court: “I said to stop but he (Bryson) just kept on going, and that’s when I just closed my eyes and I am doing what he wanted to do.”

Giving evidence during the trial, Bryson claimed both women consented to having sex.

Bryson spoke of identifying as transgender at the age of four but not making the decision to transition until age 29.

The court heard Bryson is currently taking hormones and seeking surgery to complete gender reassignment.

The case sparked an uproar when Bryson was convicted in late January and was taken to Cornton Vale – Scotland’s only all-female facility – to be held in segregation to await sentencing.

Scotland’s justice secretary Keith Brown ordered an urgent review of the case and the Scottish Prison Service took the decision to halt the movement of all transgender prisoners with a history of violence against women into the female estate.